This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Brand, A. G. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The Uses of Writing in Psychotherapy

Tracing the uses of writing in psychotherapy over the last half century, we find that the earliest systematic practices were governed largely by a psychoanalytic medical model. Other, newer schools have challenged the deficiency-oriented Freudian perspective and view writing as an expressive art, integral to healthy and creative human development.

Consonant with this trend, the humanistic psychologies gathered adherents who used writing as a potent instrument of growth and as a vehicle for total life development.

Apart from the popular poetry therapy movement, other more recent practices have been developed such as correspondence, diary and journal keeping, and other more cognitive writing activities.

The literature presently documents the principal use of writing as an ancillary technique enhancing the more conventional therapies. However, its capacity to help people uncover new levels of self-awareness and its promise in terms of self-help offer unique potential for inner human exploration.

Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 19, No. 4, 53-72 (1979)
DOI: 10.1177/002216787901900406


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?